1966: Lemon Grove Man Invents Better Bowling Ball Measuring Device

According to the Spring Valley Bulletin, here's what was happening in your neighbourhood this week in 1966.

– A local fan of bowling invented a device to help better measure bowling balls. Kenneth Conrad, a Lemon Grove resident, invented a master ball to hand-measure new bowling balls against and a drill to help him duplicate the master ball’s measurements.

Conrad said he came up with the idea for the measuring device because he wasn’t able to get a bowling ball measured to his liking. A ball maker even told him that he would have to “change his style” because no bowling ball could be custom measured. Conrad and his business partner designed a master ball that measured the span of the hand and the curve of each finger. Once that was finished, Conrad and his partner created a drill, patterned after a key cutting device, that would duplicate the exact measurements of the master ball.

The drill featured a double rotating table that allowed the custom ball to move in the exact same way that the master moved. Conrad’s bowling ball shop, Tru-Fit, produced up to 20 custom bowling balls per day. And the company was in talks with a Chicago-based bowling ball manufacturer to strike up a partnership. In addition to creating custom bowling balls, Tru-Fit also re-created or revamped current custom bowling balls that needed a little repair.

–Officials from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints were in Spring Valley to attend the San Diego South Stake Quarterly Conference. The officials were in town to speak at the conference and to meet with local community and religious leaders. The officials included Elder Theodore Burton, Elder B. Keith Duffin and Lorraine S. Wilkinson. The conference opened at 10 a.m. at the Stake Center in Chula Vista.

–Unification of schools across 74 grade schools and eight high schools was up for discussion. The Grossmont Cheerleaders, a group of citizens who organized to help present the positives surrounding unification, held a meeting to decide the best ways to campaign for the passage of unification come voting time in June.

The group stated the unification would put one school district in charge of all 74 grade schools and eight high schools. In addition the passage of the proposition would have just one electorate to which it would be responsible instead of nine elementary districts and the Grossmont Union High School District.

The Grossmont College District would be completely separate from the new district. The Grossmont Cheerleaders also planned to look to the community for their input on how best to campaign for the propositions passage.